Board okays desalination settlement

JANUARY 26, 2006 | The Southwest Florida Water Management District on January 25 voted 7-4 to approve a settlement agreement with Tampa Bay Water that resolves a dispute over how much water a seawater desalination facility must produce. The agreement also promotes environmental restoration.
The agreement allows the District and Tampa Bay Water to move forward with its partnership to ensure a sustainable water supply for the Tampa Bay area and expedite environmental recovery in areas where water resources are stressed, said Heidi McCree, Governing Board chair. The District had pledged up to $85 million toward the costs of a 25-million-gallon seawater desalination facility being built by Tampa Bay Water.
The desalinated water is needed to allow for reductions in groundwater withdrawals from the central wellfield where pumping has negatively impacted the environment. The District believed the agreement required the plant to be operated near capacity. Tampa Bay Water believed it had the flexibility to operate the facility at less than capacity. Negotiating teams composed of staff members and the chairs of each agency worked through a mediator to develop the agreement.
The agreement staggers District payments to Tampa Bay Water based on performance standards for the desalination facility:
· 25% upon acceptance test
· 25% after producing 25 million gallons per day (mgd) for four consecutive months
· 50% after producing 12.5 mgd for 12 consecutive months · Interest accrued (approximately $5 million) after producing 20 mgd for 12 consecutive months.
The agreement also contains provisions that promote environmental restoration, including:
· Tampa Bay Water agrees to use its best efforts to keep central wellfield pumping at 90 million gallons per day during 2006 and 2007. The permit requires the central wellfield withdrawals to not exceed 90 mgd beginning in 2008.
· Tampa Bay Water will also provide 3 mgd to southern Hillsborough County to allow for reduced groundwater pumping in that stressed area.
The entire Partnership Agreement, including the amendments approved this week, expires on Dec. 31, 2010.
See Southwest Florida Water Management District for more.

TAKING ON THE MEXICO CITY FORUM A guest opinion in the Cook County News Herald of Grand Marais, Minnesota, blasted the approach taken at the March Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City which equated water rights with human rights.
"After the first day of the meeting, however, it became clear that the government and corporate agents were only interested in turning water management into a business opportunity, whereupon the NGOs and activists established an alternative forum intent on identifying access to clean water as a fundamental right . . . If we accept the position that water is a common good, and an inalienable right shared by all people, does that mean that folks in China or France have as much right to Lake Superior’s water as we do?
Perhaps we would be better served if we didn’t use the concept of human rights to justify our control of Lake Superior’s water, but rather, focused on Cibber’s observation that possession is eleven points in the law."